Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Breaux Bridge Band

Painted in 1971, The
Breaux Bridge Band is a classic among George Rodrigue’s paintings. Along with similar works from this
period, it defines his style as a pictorial champion of the Cajun culture,
recording snapshots of time within turn-of-the-century Southwest
Louisiana. Ironically, however, it is only on the artist’s canvas, and not in reality, that this band connects
Acadiana’s heritage to the music that today, along with Cajun food and joie de vivre, characterizes a culture.

“There really was a Breaux Bridge Band around 1900,”
explains George Rodrigue, “but it was called a ‘Classical Music Band.’ They were very popular at the time. The members were Cajuns and Europeans,
and their repertoire was classical.
It had nothing to do with Cajun music.”

(Author’s note: Sadly, this is the best photo we have
of this important work, a canvas full of blending and nuances, and without the solid
black areas visible here. Tracking
down these early paintings and arranging photography with the owners is an
on-going challenge. As a
comparison, see the blog posts describing the Aioli Dinner, The Mamou Riding Academy, and Broussard’s Barber Shop, all from the same period and all recently
photographed with the latest technology-)

A Breaux Bridge native whose grandfather was in the band
gave George a photograph in 1971, knowing that he researched local traditions
for his paintings.

“She was a self-proclaimed Breaux Bridge historian,” says
Rodrigue. “Many of us feared that
the Cajun culture was dying, and we each tried to preserve it in our own way.”

The Breaux Bridge Band
belonged to a series of four paintings that included the Aioli Dinner, the Mamou
Riding Academy, and Broussard’s
Barber Shop, all part of George Rodrigue’s first series of prints made from
paintings. Without a gallery or agent, he listed his home telephone number in ads featuring these images for Apollo Magazine out of London, an
impressive periodical full of European antiques and art.

“One day a guy from New Orleans called my house,” recalls
Rodrigue, “wanting to know why an unknown Cajun artist in Lafayette was running
ads in the premier international arts & antiques magazine. At the time, I was the magazine’s only
American advertiser outside of New York City. He was so impressed that he bought the original Breaux Bridge Band.”

The four paintings also formed the basis for Rodrigue’s
landmark publication, The Cajuns of George
Rodrigue, the first book published nationally on the Cajun culture. From the book:

"Looking at them, one can see how proud they were to be musicians. During the week they were all farmers, but on the weekend they felt like they were contributing to, I think, America, doing something no one else was doing.

"I guess this was true at the turn of the century when the Breaux Bridge Band was rehearsing at this barn." -George Rodrigue from The Cajuns of George Rodrigue (Oxmoor House, 1976); learn more about this important book here-

Each of these classic images sparks memories for George, not
only the long hours it took to paint them, but also his personal nostalgia
related to the subject matter:

“I started going to Breaux Bridge in high school (1959-1960),
because the town was open on Sunday night. You could drink alcohol and dance at the clubs on the Breaux
Bridge Highway, the road from Lafayette. The white nightclub was on one side of
the road, and the black club on the other. The musicians performed back and forth between them.

“The bands alternated between rock-n-roll and swamp pop. I
saw Clarence Frogman Henry, Irma Thomas, and Fats Domino. I remember that while singing, Fats
played the piano with one hand and signed autographs with the other.

(pictured, Kerry Boutte of Mulate’s, Beverly Friedman, George
Rodrigue, and Steve Friedman of NBC, pose at Mulate's in 1988 for a photograph that
would eventually become a Rodrigue painting; the Friedmans were in Southwest
Louisiana from New York City, celebrating the Cajun Mardi Gras for a segment on
NBC’s Nightly News; click photo to enlarge-)

“My good friend Kerry Boutte,” continues George, “bought
Mulate’s and transformed the bar into a Cajun restaurant and dance hall. He single-handedly brought back Cajun
music.

“Kerry told me that the first week the bands played, no one
showed up. Eventually, however,
the word spread, and even the national press took notice. Zachary Richard, Octave Clark (the
subject of this year’s Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival poster), Michael Doucet
and Beaujolais, and hundreds of Cajun bands played there over the years. It
became the place for Cajun music,
while also sparking the revival of Cajun food.”

George Rodrigue’s paintings and prints hung in Mulate’s
almost from the beginning. Today,
although the original Breaux Bridge Mulate’s is gone, Kerry Boutte and his
family own Mulate’s, the Original Cajun Restaurant in New Orleans, where the
music and dancing continue.

6 comments:

Breaux Bridge Highway: a drinking age of 18 and nobody checking. But George was on the road already anyway. Rich roots, but he could have come from a lunar landscape and produced brilliant color and stark black-and-white. (Look what came out of Fort Walton, too!)

Great to hear from you, Mark. And I'm so glad you found a copy of The Cajuns. It's a special book, to be sure. Thank you for reading my blog and for keeping us all in the New Orleans literary scene loop. Hope to see you this fall at the Louisiana Book Festival.

What a treat this page is, Wendy. I will share it with my cousin with whom I will be traveling to New Orleans soon - looking for George's gallery. Your reference to Fats Domino brought back a rush of memories for me. Mama (Inez Durand Currier) went to at least one of Fats' concerts (I think in Breaux Bridge) when she and her sister (Lucille Landers) and her boyfriend were newly of drinking age. Even at an advanced age she got a twinkled in her eyes when recalling these good times.

Your blog and George's body of work are authentic histories of major aspects of Cajun culture. It was good to read that you were able to locate some of the original paintings to photograph and share here. What a massive detective project that must have been.

Thanks to both of you for your contribution to preserving part of the history of southwest Louisiana.

Thank you for your comments, and thank you especially for the charming vignette about your mom. I love walking down memory lane with George. He usually starts describing these old paintings by saying, "Oh, nothing much to tell." But with a little prodding, he's living once again in 'the old days,' exploring tangents, and enjoying the nostalgia.

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About Me

I was born on a military base and raised in Fort Walton Beach, FL.
Attended Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, majoring in Art History and English, followed by European Art and Architecture in Vienna, Austria, and graduate school at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Worked for the Rodrigue Gallery in New Orleans and later Carmel, CA, beginning in 1991, and married George Rodrigue in 1997.
I've written guest columns for publications including Gambit, Country Roads Magazine, and Louisiana Cultural Vistas. As of 2017 I live between New Orleans, Louisiana and Santa Fe, New Mexico. I work extensively on George Rodrigue exhibitions and publishing projects, and lecture widely on his art.
I remain involved full-time within Rodrigue gallery operations and the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, with an ongoing focus on preserving and enhancing Rodrigue's artistic and philanthropic legacy.
My first solo book, "The Other Side of the Painting" (UL Press), was published October 2013.